Page 40 - Studio International - May 1969
P. 40
a much more fairground attitude. The ques-
tion is how do you take the risk and not fall
into just entertainment?
LIJN: I think that myself I might take it quite
seriously as a research and yet it might appear
to somebody else to be very entertaining.
LINDSAY: Yes, but that's just being very single
about it. What I am referring to is the way the
artist is used by the art world. I would say
that the art world often only uses your type of
artist because he entertains the public.
LIJN: I think it is almost better that they take it
lightly and the people who really count will
take it in the right way. If the public takes it
too seriously, then we are likely to create an
academy. Certain groups feel that kinetic art
is the art and that nothing else counts, but
that's creating a new traditional art—a new
academy. I like the contradiction of being LINDSAY: But inspiration is influence. Or isn't it? knows about. I mean the inner world of our
serious and at the same time laughing at one- Lux: Well, it's such a vague kind of influence. bodies, the inner world of materials, the
self. For example, when I started I was neither minute sub-atomic world of reality—in which
LINDSAY: Who would you say are your direct inspired nor influenced by Mondrian. I'm I think there are a great many spiritual secrets
masters ? now inspired and influenced by Mondrian, to be found. And in the outer world, of outer
LIJN: Through the history of art there have but only since about three to four years. space, of planets and of planetary forces, of
been many epochs in which there were great LINDSAY: Why? Because your work has solar systems and galaxies, also there are a
masters, whether they have names or not— changed ? great many spiritual secrets to be found, and
Egyptian art, Ancient Greek art, a great deal LIJN: Well, I think my work has evolved and I believe that they mix. Once you know more
of Indian art, a great deal of Chinese art and I think also that I have become a great deal about the outer and about the inner, or about
then, coming back into—I'm not terribly more conscious of the things that can inspire the small and the large, you find out how
excited about the Renaissance but I was me and that influence me. similar they are.
excited about Byzantine art—I would say LINDSAY: You are conscious of these? LINDSAY: I think that your big water discs will
Bosch LIJN: For example, Mondrian—what I mean really have their true effect when the whole of
LINDSAY: What I asked you was who were by the inspiration I have from Mondrian is present education changes.
your direct masters. not necessarily his painting but the thought LIJN: In what way `changes'?
LIJN: There's nature first and then there are behind it, the philosophy behind it, the purity LINDSAY: Changes because at the moment
the artists whom I love the most. Artists like of this thought. It comes out from his paint- people's minds are not equipped to take in the
Mondrian or Malevich. ing. Above all, I'm interested in the spirit of vibrations of outer space— they will have to pre-
LINDSAY: When you say you love the most, purity in Mondrian's paintings. pare for it with quite a different mental
would you say that they really influence you ? LINDSAY : Would you say that your experi- attitude. To me it is artists like you that are
Because one often loves things and admires ment is connected with the cosmological ahead of your time in that very relation. Tell
things that don't influence one. world ? me a little about your creative processes
LIJN: Well, I don't think I have been in- LIJN: That's the part that excites me the most through which you go to achieve the final
fluenced to such a great degree by other artists' —and that's when I'm most interested—not only result.
work. I think I have been influenced most by the conquest of outer space but the conquest LIJN: I work a lot from drawings. I begin all
nature, by things I see around me in the of inner space as well — the inner and the outer— my works from drawings. They grow and they
streets—in the sky. I think that what the and I think that they are incredibly close— develop. First I made wall panels, light panels,
artists have done is 'inspire' me. But I can't or perhaps they are at the same distance from and then they developed into the discs. Once
say that I took any definite line from any one us. By the inner I don't necessarily mean some I had developed the Liquid reflections to a
artist and followed it. sort of mysterious spiritual world that nobody point where I felt that it was already growing